..................................Moderator comment.....................................

I may update the game section and conclusion once I've played the game more. As yet I've not been able to find anyone online to play the game co-operatively or multiplayer as the server list has been empty. I've set up a server and left it on while i did other work on my computer and no one joined during that time.Maybe once the game has been out for a few months or when it has been fully completed there may be more people online. Personally I'd like to see a semi permanent server set up by the developers at least for the first few months. That may encourage others to join. In the mean time, i recommend you enter this limited giveaway, the game was a lot of fun.

WEscape

In Brief

A first person escape the room puzzle with single player, cooperative and multiplayer options.

If you've previously won a Steam key for any limited giveaway and still not received your key, please contact the giveaway team via the contact form HERE. Please include details of the name and the email you used when you entered the competition, plus a screenshot of your name in the winners list would be useful to confirm your win, thank you.

Introduction:

In WEscape, a group of up to four friends put their minds together to solve puzzles and escape dungeons. Test your communication and reasoning skills while having fun with your friends. It’s the essential experience of an escape room without the expense or hassle of actually going to one.

Challenging and Diverse Puzzles: WEscape contains a varied assortment of unique puzzles which will require logic, knowledge, teamwork, and a bit of creativity to solve.

Online Multiplayer: WEscape makes it easy to join your friends and tackle fun challenges together without leaving the comfort of your home.

Single Player: If your friends aren’t online, WEscape also features single player experiences.

Casual Atmosphere: WEscape is for people who enjoy puzzles. Unlike some escape room games, there is nothing scary or stressful in this game; we just want you to have fun with your friends.

If you enjoy going to escape rooms with your friends or just solving puzzles in general, WEscape is a fun and convenient experience built just for you.

Reference accessed HERE 29th Sept 2018.

Installation:

Assuming you win a Steam key for WEscape once you've found it (should be sent to the email you used to enter the giveaway - it must be the email you first used to sign into the game giveaway site. If you’ve used a throwaway email there may be problems getting a key, because the key may be sent to that email. If you have any problems, use the contact form. You must activate the game via your Steam client. Once activated it will be permanently tied to your Steam profile and you'll be able to install the game at anytime, anywhere on any computer, so long as you can validate who you are (usually via emails etc.). If you don't have a Steam account, you will first have to download and install the Steam client HERE

Then create a Steam profile/account. Once that has been completed you can input the Steam code that you've received (after completing the form filling) via the game button along the top of the Steam client, (located between friends and Help). From the drop-down menu select 'Activate a product on Steam'. This opens a product activation window. Just follow the prompts to complete activation. Once the Steam code has been accepted, the game will be associated with your Steam account and can be installed any time you wish

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting WEscape to work, please visit the problems section over in the Game Discussion forums, which I've now incorporated into the FAQ's thread, and which you can find HERE or check the Steam forums or contact Steam support.

The Game:

WEscape was released on Steam on the 17th August 2018 as an early access release. This means that the game isn't yet complete. The developer Xerologik said the following about why they released the title as an early access release:

“As a small developer, we don’t have the resources to test the game enough to find every possible issue, so we need the community’s help to find any issues that exist. It’s also extremely difficult to gauge how difficult puzzles are for different people, so we want feedback so we can improve our puzzles to make them challenging yet accessible for as many people as possible.''

The developers anticipate that the game will be in early access for 2-3 months. and the final/full version is planned to have additional levels, bug fixes for any issues found, some improved assets, and perhaps new gameplay features if they are widely requested. Basically, the final version of the game should be more polished and have more content based on community feedback. The current state of the game has four levels; i.e. a four-player level, two single-player levels, and a level for anywhere between 1 and 4 people. It has core gameplay features, such as character movement and object interaction, that you need to complete these levels. It also has to function multiplayer with voice chat, so you can play and solve puzzles online with your friends. For those who don't win a key, but decide it may be worth buying the developers have said it's likely to increase the price slightly as new content is added. Although there’s a slight chance we will have separate DLC in the future, right now we plan to have all content included in the base game, so even if you purchase at the current price, you will still have access to additional future content.

The developers are hoping to involve the community throughout the early access period by asking the community to give feedback from the community about both the current content of the game and future content. If players encounter bugs, they want to hear about them so they can fix them. If players are stumped by a particular puzzle or believe they could be made clearer or improve them, they would like you to tell them. If players think particular assets need to be improved, they want to improve those, too. If players express strong interest in some new feature, they want to add it. If players have suggestions for future levels, they would like to know about them so they can tailor future levels to the community’s interests.

WEscape is an escape the room game played in first person view and has single player and multiplayer modes. The game is still in Early Access on Steam, and at present has four different puzzles to explore and solve, One is purely single player called ''Iscape'', another one called ''The Royal We'' can be played in single player or with up to three other players and two other multiplayer only levels, one called ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' that requires four players to work cooperatively and the other called ''From Me Two You'' that requires two players to work cooperatively to escape.

You can set up your own server or join someone else's, however, of the several times I checked to see if there were any servers online; none appeared. If you do have friends who have this game, then it may be wise to arrange specific times so that you can create a server when you all agree to play. You can set the server to private or allow the community to join. Like many games that allow server creation, many never take off due to the low numbers who play the game at any one time; however, If you have a wide circle of friends, one way to let them know you are playing is to create a Steam group specific to the game; then invite everyone in your friends list to join and post a short review with a link to the groups page, so that others who have purchased the game may see and join the group, making it more likely to get someone to play the multiplayer levels. Once a group has been set up you can then set messages to automatically inform everyone who is online that has the game and are members of the group that a server is about to start. Hopefully, you'll then be able to experience the multiplayer and co-op modes of this game.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing the level The Royal We in single player and would recommend it to anyone who likes puzzles. I don't particularly play many puzzles, but the first-person perspective and the hands-on approach to solving the puzzles by physically having to move various items around was an interesting way of doing these puzzles. I must admit to having never played a puzzle game quite like it before and was surprised at how much I got into it. A VR version of this game would be a great addition to the game. I wouldn't release a separate version just for VR as that smacks of milking the cow, instead, I would add it as an extra mode for those who own VR headsets.

Some puzzles cannot be solved just by entering the room and completing the puzzle. You need to have retrieved certain objects from other rooms before you can complete that stage.

I have only played one of the puzzles the whole way through. To escape the room that the puzzle was situated in you needed to discover what the numbers on the keypad next to the Exit door were. To do this you had to enter several different rooms and retrieve the number by solving the puzzle in the room. Once solved the number plate was released and you had to place it in a letterbox like hole next to the keypad. Whichever number it was would then appear in the correct place on the key pad. Numbers are not in the usual places you'd expect them to be; instead, they are jumbled up. Once you've solved all the puzzles you can then input the number that is given at the top of the keypad to open the exit door and escape. You can complete the puzzle without completing all the puzzles. If you are stuck on any one if only one number is missing, it will be obvious which key to press even without the number. you may even scrape through with two unfinished puzzles, however, the more that are missing, the harder it becomes to guess where the correct keys are located. I didn't have to do this, but I think you may find there are penalties if you try and get it wrong. One of the puzzle rooms involved finding the images that were different. I found the first images easily, which then opened a door to a second room with a series of what looked like identical images. I found it difficult to find any differences, so started to guess, each wrong guess turned all the images to black and each time I got it wrong, it took longer and longer for the images to reappear. I think the same may occur if you try to guess the number pad as well, but as I've not tried it I can't say for certain yet. I will experiment another day and update this when I have time and confirm whether that is the case.

Posted by Whiterabbit 29th Sept 2018.

Conclusion:

When I first checked out WEscape on Steam, I thought the graphics looked rather drab and dated and I didn’t think I’d like the game, however the three user reviews that have been posted since the game was released last month (17th August 18) so far were all thumbs up and no one said anything negative about the game and more importantly as I was given a key from the developer via one of the giveaway team (thanks Alexia and Xerologik Studios) I felt duty bound to give this a proper once over. Well, to my surprise I really enjoyed playing the game (despite a stinking headache from spending too much time staring at my monitor {almost 6 hours without a break} writing up Saturdays game review). The puzzles are challenging enough for most game enthusiasts, and despite any instructions or walkthroughs available online (I did check), I was able to solve the first room (The Royal We) without much trouble, though I was stumped for a short time on a couple of the puzzle rooms. I recommend this excellent puzzle game. The game is still under development and has been released on Steam as an early access game, so do not expect a fully completed game. The developers are updating the game fairly regularly. You can read their updates HERE and the opinion of one Steam curator HERE.

Suggestions:

If you're one of the 25 lucky winners of a Steam key for WEscape please give some feedback about your opinion of the game, for example, what you liked or disliked about it, or how it could be improved from your point of view. What, improvements, if any, would change your opinion?

There are thousands of subscribers to the game giveaway of the day every weekend which makes this an ideal forum for giving developers ideas as to what their consumers (i.e you) would like to see in a game; for example, you could suggest extra content such as better or more original mini-games, or a level editor that you would like to see that would make it more appealing to you. Maybe you think the graphics are a little dated and are in need of re-skinning, or maybe you've just had enough of the genre and want to see something different or something with more originality?

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the developer Xerologik Studios for providing 25 keys for WEscape and an extra one for me to review the game; and to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If this weeks limited giveaway game doesn't grab you, but you still hanker for a new game, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free in the 'Weekly roundup of game deals', HERE (I've not updated in in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

The rest of the information that used to be posted in the game review can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns thread for details of other free games and offers HERE

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, if you have a problem getting the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve or if you have a game to offer the community you can do so HERE